Using Technology to Raise the Voices of English Learners

Furman Hall 109

The presenter will discuss a variety of multimodal digital tools that foster language development in content-area instruction with English Learners (EL). A chorus of scholarship reiterates the unique linguistic and academic needs of the growing population of EL and teachers’ challenges to meet the needs of these learners (Combs, Evans, Fletcher, Parra, & Jimenez, 2005; Garcia, Jensen, & Cuéllar, 2006; Staehr Fenner, 2014; Nieto, 2010). The presenters will explore both oral and written language-based instructional activities using technology, such as blogging, to demonstrate how these tools and activities promote both content-area learning and literacy development with learners in diverse contexts. For example, the presenters will highlight the digital tool Flipgrid, which enables students to create videos and engage in discussions using this platform, therefore developing EL’ oral language skills via content-area instruction.Moreover, the presenter will explain that the use of technology can be a modality for eliciting students’ home funds of knowledge and language (González, Moll, & Amanti, 2005) as a stepping stone for activating prior knowledge and building background important for school learning. In addition, the presenter will discuss data collected from a research study conducted in the spring of 2018 that outlines middle school teachers’ perceptions of some of these tools and the integration of technology in content-area instruction specifically with EL. Using student work samples and teacher interviews, the presenter will analyze how technology can mediate EL’ language development and further and foster engagement among EL.The off-campus research was conducted in two middle schools.